“Remotely operated vehicle” (ROV) is a term normally used to designate an under-water vehicle operated from a surface vessel via a cable, said cable is sometimes called “tether”, or “umbilical cord” or just “umbilical”, with or without the extension “cable”. The purpose of operating the ROV may be all kinds of missions, for example technical maintenance of underwater installations within the offshore industry, search, investigation of accidents or surfacing of parts from crashed aircraft or sunken vessels, or general research of sea bed.
Another purpose, and a main reason for using an ROV in a defense application, is the advantage to be able to perform operations in a concealed manner, hidden from enemy eyes and ears. Such operations may include surveillance missions etc.
However, at great depths the lengths of the umbilical cable may become a practical problem. It would therefore be convenient if the ROV could be operated from a submarine, which could bring the ROV close to the object of interest, thereby eliminating at least part of the need of cable length from surface down to operating depth.
Another benefit of operating the ROV from a submarine would be the almost lack of bad weather conditions. Surface storms, heave of the sea, and similar conditions are not present below the sea surface. This would therefore allow missions to be initiated without waiting for good weather.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,413 disclose a hydraulic power and control system for an elongated container able to house an underwater vehicle and which is capable of being mounted on the deck of a submarine. The container has top door means capable of being opened for release or recovery of the underwater vehicle.
The article “EURODOCKER—A Universal Docking—Downloading—Recharging System for AUVs: Conceptual Design Result” by Attilio Brighent et al, OCEANS '98 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS NICE, FRANCE 28 Sep. -1 Oct. 1998, NEW YORK, N.Y., USA, IEEE, US, vol 3, September 1998 (1998-Sep.-28) pages 1463-1467, XP010311858 ISBN: 0-7803-5045-6 discloses a managing system for AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) including a submerged docking station for AUVs.
EP 0 169 219 B1 describes a remotely operated underwater vehicle and method of operating the same.
EP 0 236 026 A2 describes a tether cable management apparatus and method for a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,524 describe a clamp system and method for connecting tubular bodies together.
The use of wires to control a torpedo is well known in the art. However the problem of controlling a torpedo is different from that of controlling an ROV. First, a torpedo is a disposable, single use type of equipment. Therefore, there is no incentive for developing torpedo tubes and wire control devices that enable control of a torpedo to return to the submarine and swim back into the torpedo tube. On the contrary, this could be a very risky endeavour.
On the other hand, when operating an ROV it would be highly desirable to have the possibility to make the ROV to return to the submarine where it was launched and to completely retrieve it.
A first problem to be solved is how to rewind umbilical cable when the ROV returns to the submarine. A second problem is how to avoid the cable from becoming entangled. A third problem is how to prevent the cable from wearing against parts of the sluice device and/or the submarine itself A fourth problem is to provide a device for solving the first and second problem easily and at a reasonable cost.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that solves the above described problems.
This object is fulfilled according to the invention by a sluice device.